1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and particularly to a cable end connector assembly having a pull mechanism to facilitate disengaging the cable end connector assembly from a mating complementary connector.
2. Description of Prior Art
There exists in the art a cable end connector assembly matable with an electrical connector mounted on a printed circuit board for transmitting signals therebetween. To facilitate removing the cable end connector assembly from connection with the complementary connector, pull mechanisms have been used. Such pull mechanisms generally permit applying a withdrawing force to the cable end connector assembly without directly pulling a cable of the cable end connector assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,361 discloses one type of pull mechanism. A cable end connector assembly disclosed therein has a pull tab partially inserted in a connector body of the assembly between two rows of contacts of the assembly for user pinching and pulling when the assembly is to be disengaged from a complementary connector. However, to comply with miniaturization trends in the electronic field, the cable end connector assembly is required to be manufactured much smaller than before, and the contacts of the assembly are arranged much closer than before. Therefore, there will be no enough room inside the connector body to accommodate the pull tab. In addition, since the pull tab is fixed in the connector body, when it is damaged in usage, the connector body has to be taken apart to replace the pull tab, which is obviously undesirable to users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,353 discloses another type of pull mechanism. A cable end connector assembly disclosed therein has a pull mechanism assembled outside of an elongated housing thereof. The insulative housing is formed with a pair of locking structures at opposite ends thereof. The pull mechanism comprises an arch pull leash and a pair of locking tabs engageable with the pull leash and the locking structures of the insulative housing. Thus, the assembly can be disengaged from a complementary connector readily by pulling the pull leash. Whereas, such pull mechanism and locking structure are not adapted for a miniature cable end connector assembly, because the sizes of the pull mechanism and the locking structure are required to be much smaller to correspond to the miniature connector assembly, which will make the configurations of the pull mechanism and the locking structure become quite complicated comparing with they being in original sizes. Therefore, a mass of trouble will be encountered in manufacturing and assembling the pull mechanism and the locking structure.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/406105, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,885, Ser. No. 10/406691, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,759, and Ser. No. 10/406052, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,387, commonly assigned to the same assignee and filed on Apr. 2, 2003, disclose some approaches. However, some other solutions applicable for some special circumstances are still needed.
Hence, an improved cable end connector assembly is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.